SETTLING WASTE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20323, 2 August 1929, Page 12

SETTLING WASTE LAND.

Of all the subjects covered in a Financial Statement of very comprehensive range, none is more important. or of greater promise than that touching the settlement of waste .land forming part of the Crown estate. It is interesting to notice that two systems arc suggested, to work parallel. By the one, the land would he brought into such a condition that it offered the incoming settler the prospect of an immediate livelihood, the cost of this process being capitalised and added to the valuation of the land. By the other, men able and willing to do the pioneering work themselves would be offered land at a nominal price, advanced capital on specially favourable terms, and given scope to apply their own ideas and methods to the task. There is room for both and need for both. The proposal to borrow up to £5,000,000 for these purposes arid to create a special lands development, branch of the State Advances Oflice to oversee the second method of encouraging settle ment is eminently sound. There is no purpose for which the credit of the State could bo more legitimately used, or with better prospect of a favourable return, directly and in directly, than in effecting the utilisa-

tion of these waste lands. In the interval between the Government's advent to office and the opening of the session, various Ministers have had their attention drawn to specific areas of land, especially in the North Island, awaiting use in some such way. There can be no doubt that the land hunger exists. If, therefore, the opportunity is offered for men to take up holdings without the heavy capital loading inevitable when improved estates are subdivided, a good response can be expected tc be followed by an acceleration of that settlement and development process the country needs so badly. The favourable reaction on the general level of prosperity is assured, the conquest of unemploy ment is promised by this means more surely than by any other that could be suggested. The scheme as sketched in the Financial Statement is exceedingly hopeful, and its practical application to existing circumstances will be eagerly anticipated by all who appreciate the importance of the issues involved.